(en français ci-après)
•••• Bouvier Frères à Genève, Case No. 10758, 56 mm, 106 g, circa 1790
An important Geneva gold enamel automaton carrousel verge pocket watch with animated figures
Case: 18k gold, glazed back with a polychrome enamelled figures. Dial: enamel, eccentric hour chapter ring with Arabic numerals, visible balance with polished steel arms at "10", scale for adjusting device at "2". Movm.: full plate movement, keywind, chain/fusee.
The back is decorated with Champlevé enamel; a cut-out sector at "12" shows the performing automaton with three multicoloured, moving enamel figures that take turns to appear in the window in the space of a minute: Before a painted parkland with animated fountain and well, a peasant in period garments pushes a loaded handcart with a moving wheel; he is followed by a heavily loaded donkey moving its head up and down, and two young men on a rocking seesaw.
This kind of performing automaton with moving figures is incredibly rare. A very similar example is owned by the Patek Philippe Museum (Volume IV, p. 63, inventory number S-212); another pocket watch of the same type was sold at an auction in 1981. The watch was signed "Roux Roman et Bordier & Compagnie" and estimated at 100,000-130,000 German marks. We sold a third watch like it - also by Bouvier Frères but without moving figures - during our 82nd auction and a similar one is part of the Sir David Salomon Collection (no. 67).
Bouvier Frères are known for their high quality watches with fine automatons which they produced mainly for the English and French markets.
•••• Encore un automate de l'âge d'or des belles mécaniques émaillées de l'artisanat d'art genevois : différents figures traditionnelles défilent dans un guichet qui révèle un décor émaillé. Ces montres de qualité musée figurent dans les plus célèbres collections internationales...
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